Advice for workers about health and safety and how to make a complaint about your workplace.
Our health and safety team respond to complaints from workers or Safety Representatives about poor workplace conditions that are likely to result in ill health.
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Issues We Do Not Deal With - find out who to contact for help with issues or types of businesses that our health and safety team cannot deal with
How You Can Help Yourself
You can find advice for workers on the HSE, TUC and Directgov websites using the links from this page and read the guide Your Health, Your Safety.
Look out for the information on the Health and Safety Law poster that your employer should display in your workplace.
And try the interactive tool on the NHS Live Well Workplace Health website - How Healthy is Your Workplace?
If you are concerned about your workplace you should first speak to your employer, a trade union representative or safety officer. If you cannot resolve the matter or prefer not to speak to them directly, please contact us for advice.
Requests for Service or Advice
If you make a complaint to us about a workplace it may or may not result in a visit to the workplace complained about. Many issues can be dealt with when undertaking a general check of the premises. We may decide that no action is necessary, offer advice over the phone or in a letter to the workplace.
Complaints that highlight serious breaches in legislation will be dealt with having regard to our Health and Safety Enforcement Policy, which you can download in PDF format below.
If you are looking for compensation relating to an accident, then this is a private matter between you and the business for which you may wish to seek legal advice from a solicitor or the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).
Anonymity
We will never share your personal details with the workplace involved without your prior agreement. However, if the complaint is very specific it is likely employers can guess who has made the complaint.
You will be advised of the course of action that we are going to take when you make the complaint, or shortly afterwards. If you wish to remain anonymous then you will be unable to gain this valuable feedback, and if there is nothing the officer can do, you will not be able to be informed of the reasons why.
